Habit 3: Put First Things First

Summary

When you "Put First Things First" you control what you can control. You can do this by living in quadrant 2, plan weekly, adapt daily, and organize. When a college student learns to prioritizes they will be able to do a lot.

Examples of Putting First Things First

Something that everyone has challenges with is time management. Here are some examples to help with time management:

Effectiveness First, Then Efficiency: Effectiveness is doing the right thing and Efficiency is doing things right. This can happen a lot when presenting something or even talking to other people. This can also be blurred when pressured by friends.
Importance Over Urgency: There is a difference, like sometimes something that is urgent most of the time is not that urgent and does not need your immediate attention. While something important needs your attention at that very moment.
Relationships Before Schedules: When times get busy it can happen that we brush other people aside to make sure we get it done. It is important to remember that it is just as important to build relationships as it is to get other stuff done.

Live in Quadrant 2

There are many things that are important and urgent, theses are split up into 4 quadrants.

Quadrant 1 - This is where everything is both important and urgent. This means that people living in quadrant 1 are constantly running around doing stuff, which eventually leads to poor work, stress, and burnout
Quadrant 2 - This is where things are important but not urgent. This is where effective students want to be. This is recreation, goal setting, planning, proactive work, relationship building, and proper rest.
Quadrant 3 - This is filled with things that seem urgent, bu are not important. For example, this is like answering a phone call or a text. Students can get peer pressured into this quadrant and do numerous of things that would bring them down to this level.
Quadrant 4 - This is where all the slackers are. Those people that don't do anything and just sit around waiting for something to happen.

You want to live above the line, Quadrant 1 and 2. For this to happen you need to decide what is urgent and what is important to you.

Planning, Adapting, and Organizing

What is the most precious resource in the world? TIME (non-renewable) once its gone its gone. That is what a lot of students seem to forget. That time that you spend with friends or not doing anything productive you just lost time that could have been spent on homework and or studying for a class.

Planning weekly should include your goals and challenges for that week. When you create it put things that are due, things that need to get done, test, and anything else important. Not only does this make it easy to see but it makes your responsible for that week and what happens.

Being adaptable (how you can stay in control for the most part), if you are flexible you won't get bent out of shape. On many occasions there are things that you can not control. If you are not easily adaptable this can throw you off and create mayhem. But if you easily adapt to a situation or an occurrence then you will be able to get through it.

Everything can be organized, but start with what affects you. As said above there are somethings that you can not control and if you are organized then you will easily adapt. Some ways to stay organize is to have a planner or somewhere that you can put important dates that is easily accessible. Staying organized also means keeping the area you live in organized. If you are living in a room that is messy and hard to find stuff then you are searching. This means you are wasting time, be sure to keep yourself organized then you will be easily adaptable.

Put First Things First in a College Students' Success

This habit is very important for a college student, "Put First Things First". This habit helps a student learn what things are important and what is urgent in their lives. When a student can determine what is goo and bad for them, especially when spending their time, then it will get them far in college. Also this habit also helps them stay organized, which helps them adapt when things are sprung upon them. It also helps them plan there week in what they need to look out for and do.